“Electronic maps” are presentations generated by digital mapping (or digital cartography) applications. Collections of data are compiled and formatted into a virtual image presented on a programmable device display, often interactive with user inputs via graphical user interface (GUI) selection routines. Electronic maps use Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network data (or other geographic data) to give representations of a particular geographic area in a user specified format. The generated maps convey desired information for use in navigating by car, foot, bicycle, boat, mass transit, etc., from one point to another, for example depicting scaled, accurate and detailed spatial relationships of road, waterway, town and other points of interest to each other. The technology also allows the calculation of distances and estimated travel times from once place to another.
Prior systems may augment conventional cartographic representations of geographic location data with additional data presentations. For example, Google Maps™ and Street View™ mapping services enable a user to transition within an electronic map presentation from an overhead, vertical perspective view of a cartographic representation of a geographic location to a horizontal perspective view of stored, historic photographic images of a selected geographic location. (GOOGLE MAPS and GOOGLE STREET VIEW are trademarks of Google, Inc. in the United States or other countries.) Systems may also embed business contact, ratings and advertising information within electronic map data, which may be revealed and published on a desktop display of a user in response to a user selection via a GUI selection routine.